Effect of vermicompost on growth and yield of cabbage (Brassica oleraceae var. capitata)

Abstract

An experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of vermicompost on cabbage growth and yield. Vermicompost (VC) was applied at 2500 kg/ha and was compared to one organic {vita grow (VG) [N:P:K 2:3:2 (16)] and one chemical fertiliser (CF) (N:P:K 2:3:2(22)]} which were both applied at 1500 kg/ha. The other treatments were prepared as mixtures of the three fertilisers (i.e. vermicompost and vita grow; vita grow and chemical fertiliser as well as vermicompost and chemical fertiliser) at 50% recommended rate, with no fertiliser treatment as a control. The trial was laid out in a randomised complete block design with three replicates. Chemical fertiliser achieved the highest chlorophyll content (80.6 nmol/mg) which was significantly higher than the other treatments. Vermicompost and the control had the least chlorophyll content at 58.6 and 55.8 nmol/mg, respectively. VC+VG, CF and CF+VC achieved the highest numbers of marketable heads while the control had the least. VC+VG, CF and CF+VC had more than 60% of the plants producing marketable heads whilst VC and VG had less than 40% of the plants producing marketable heads. The control only had 19.93% of the plants producing marketable heads. Range of marketable heads ranged from 2.82 t/ha for the control to 12.7 t/ha for CF. VC+VG, CF and CF+VC achieved marketable yields above 10.0 t/ha.VC and VG achieved 5.45 and 8.28 t/ha. The results thus show that use of chemical fertiliser or the combinations of VC and VG and that of CF and VC are the ones that can be recommended for cabbage production.

Key words: vermicompost, growth, yield, cabbage, fertiliser